Recombinant chimeric Japanese encephalitis virus/tick-borne encephalitis virus is attenuated and protective in mice.

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) represents one of the most dangerous human pathogens circulating in Europe and East Asia. No effective treatment for TBEV infection currently exists, and vaccination is the primary preventive measure. Although several inactivated vaccines have been licensed, the development of novel vaccines against TBEV remains a high priority in disease-endemic countries. In the present study, a live chimeric recombinant TBEV (ChinTBEV) was created by substituting the major structural genes of TBEV for the corresponding regions of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) live vaccine strain SA14-14-2. The resulting chimera had a small-plaque phenotype, replicated efficiently in both mammalian and mosquito cells. The preliminary data from in vitro passaging indicated the potential for stability of ChinTBEV. ChinTBEV also exhibited significantly attenuated neuroinvasiveness in mice upon either intraperitoneal or subcutaneous inoculation in comparison with its parental TBEV. Importantly, a single immunisation with ChinTBEV elicited TBEV-specific IgG and neutralising antibody responses in a dose-dependent manner, providing significant protection against lethal TBEV challenge in mice. Taken together, the results of this proof-of-concept study indicate that ChinTBEV can be further developed as a potential vaccine candidate against TBEV infection. Moreover, the construction of this type of flavivirus chimera using a JEV vaccine strain as the genetic backbone represents a universal vaccine approach.

Wang HJ ，Li XF ，Ye Q ，Li SH ，Deng YQ ，Zhao H ，Xu YP ，Ma J ，Qin ED ，Qin CF ... -  《-》

Stable and Highly Immunogenic MicroRNA-Targeted Single-Dose Live Attenuated Vaccine Candidate against Tick-Borne Encephalitis Constructed Using Genetic Backbone of Langat Virus.

Tsetsarkin KA ，Maximova OA ，Liu G ，Kenney H ，Teterina NL ，Pletnev AG ... -  《mBio》

Generation and Characterization of a Chimeric Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Attenuated Strain ChinTBEV.

Wang HJ ，Li XF ，Qin CF 《-》

Tick-borne Langat/mosquito-borne dengue flavivirus chimera, a candidate live attenuated vaccine for protection against disease caused by members of the tick-borne encephalitis virus complex: evaluation in rhesus monkeys and in mosquitoes.

Pletnev AG ，Bray M ，Hanley KA ，Speicher J ，Elkins R ... -  《-》

Immunization with recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing structural and part of the nonstructural region of tick-borne encephalitis virus cDNA protect mice against lethal encephalitis.

Dmitriev IP ，Khromykh AA ，Ignatyev GM ，Gainullina MN ，Ageenko VA ，Dryga SA ，Vorobyeva MS ，Sandakhchiev LS ... -  《JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY》